Former Boston attorney sentenced in mortgage fraud scheme

A former attorney who practiced in Boston was sentenced todayin federal court for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme involving triple decker apartment buildings that resulted in more than $2.5 million in losses.

Charles R. Sammon, 37, of West Pittston, Pa., was sentenced to 33 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release and $977,042 in restitution to unnamed defrauded lenders, according to a news release from the state attorney general's office. He had pleaded guilty last November to wire fraud, mail fraud and unlawful monetary transactions

Sammon participated in at least 13 fraudulent real estate transactions involving apartment buildings in neighborhoods including Dorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain, according to the news release. In eight of the transactions, Sammon was the real estate closing attorney and represented the mortgage lender. For the other five, Sammon was the seller.

Essentially, Sammon recruited people to buy properties by promising to pay them as much as $40,000 for each transaction, according to the news release, but he did not disclose this to the lenders. Sammon also told the lenders that the borrowers would live in the properties as their primary residences, which ended up not being true, according to the release.

Many of the buyers also were promised that the seller would pay the mortgage for as long as a year, the news release said.

In many cases, Sammon paid buyers through his law firm bank account on transactions for which he was the closing attorney. He did not disclose those payments to the mortgage lenders that he represented. the news release said.

He also received some of the loan proceeds in addition to his legal fees, which lenders also did not know. In one transaction, he received more than $50,000, according to the news release.

Each of the loans involved in the 13 fraudulent transactions went into default, usually 12 to 18 months after the transaction, and all the properties were sold at foreclosure or through a short sale. The losses to combined losses to the lenders of more than $2.5 million, the news release said.